Moreover, on Wednesday, the independent forecasting body the Office for Budget Responsibility cut its forecast for growth in the UK economy for this year and every year up until 2016. It now expects the economy to shrink by 0.1% this year.

Some economists have questioned the effectiveness of the Bank's QE policy, suggesting that it does little more than replace one low-risk asset on banks' balance sheets - government debt - with another even lower-risk asset - a deposit at the Bank of England - and has failed to induce the banks to lend more.

In response, the Bank has instituted the Funding for Lending scheme, which aims to subsidise lending by banks to businesses and households, and which came into operation earlier this year.

Another reason for the Bank to pause on QE was provided by the most recent consumer prices data, which showed inflation jumping unexpectedly to 2.7% in October, compared with a 2.2% rate the month before.

The Bank's mandate requires it to target a 2% annual increase in the Consumer Prices index in the medium term.

"They have a bit of a balancing act at the moment," said Ross Walker, chief UK economist at RBS, "because inflation is a little bit above its target and is expected to stay there for several months.

"But at the same time the economy is still quite weak as we saw with yesterday's forecasts [from the OBR]."

The European Central Bank is due to announce its own interest rate decision later.